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I love this sponge cake recipe. It’s easy and you can make hundreds of different cakes with this base. This is a classic European sponge cake (aka Genoise). Once you have this recipe down (you’ll memorize it after a couple rounds), you’ll be baking things that look and taste like they are from a fancy bakery.
This cake base takes on moisture really well from fruit, frostings, liqueurs and syrups. As you can tell from my cake recipes, I’m a sucker for moist cakes. Read on to see 11 marvelous recipes you can make using this sponge cake base.
Over the years, I’ve tested countless different ways to make this cake and this is the best, most fail-proof method for genoise that I’ve tested. This is not like American cakes and readers often question if it can really be that easy and only have 4 ingredients.
I want you to discover this gem of a cake and succeed EVERY TIME you make it. I hope you find this video helpful. We had you in mind! 🙂
Watch How To Make Sponge Cake:
Tips for Success (Read First!):
1. When no streaks of flour remain in the dough, fold a few extra times to ensure you aren’t missing pockets of flour at the bottom
2. Bake the cake layers right after folding in the flour – they should not sit too long
3. Always use a conventional oven setting (not a convection/fan setting)
4. An electric hand mixer will take 2-4 minutes longer to beat the eggs
5. Tip from reader, Hilda: “How do you know u get the right consistency? Lift up your beater (whisk) from the batter. Make a figure “8” using the batter that drip off the beater. Then count to 10 seconds. If the figure 8 still remains on top of the batter, then u have the right consistency. If the figure 8 sinks into the batter before 10 secs, then u need to beat it longer.”
6. Bake in the center of the oven
7. Place cake in a fully pre-heated oven
8. Do not open the oven door to check on the cake until towards the end
9. Let the cake cool in a room without any outdoor draft which can make it seem eggy
Sponge Cake Recipes you can master at home:
Blackberry Lemon Cake – soft and moist and has a fluffy lemon blackberry buttercream frosting.
Charlotte Cake – layers of raspberry mousse, lady fingers and fluffy cake.
Poppy Seed Cake – fluffy and moist with a hint of rum and it’s not overly sweet.
Strawberry Sponge Cake – boasts 1 1/2 lbs of fresh strawberries. You’ll love the simple and delicious whipped cream cheese frosting.
Black Forest Cake – A chocolate version of classic genoise with 1 lb of kirsch infused cherries and whipped cream. So good!!
Russian Apple Cake (Sharlotka) – Just 5 ingredients and 15 min of prep, then your oven does the rest!
Poppy Seed Cake Roll – Moist, generously filled with a cream cheese frosting, covered with velvety chocolate ganache and pummeled with salted pistachios.
Pomegranate Christmas Cake – With a crown of glistening pom seeds, this one’s a stunner for the holidays.
Story Book Cake Roll – This cake roll is moist, rolled with a vanilla butter cream, covered in decadent chocolate and the cookie crumbs give it a subtle crunch.
Kiwi Berry Cake – If you love fruit, this cake will make your dreams come true. Layer after layer of gorgeous berries.
Tiramisu – if you like tiramisu, you will love this!
I told you I loved this cake base. I’m Completely smitten 🙂
4-Ingredient Sponge Cake (Video Recipe)
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar, 210 grams
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, 130 grams
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat Oven to 350˚F. Line bottoms of two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper (do not grease the sides).
How to Make this Sponge Cake:
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment (this is the one I have), beat 6 large eggs for 1 minute on high speed. With the mixer on, gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue beating 8-10 minutes until thick and fluffy.
- Whisk together 1 cup flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder then sift this mixture into fluffy egg mixture one third at a time. Fold with a spatula with each addition just until incorporated. Scrape spatula from the bottom to catch any pockets of flour and stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain. Do not over-mix or you will deflate the batter.
- Divide evenly between prepared cake pans (it helps if you have a kitchen scale to weight the pans). Bake at 350˚F for 23-28 minutes (my oven took 25 min), or until top is golden brown. Remove from pan by sliding a thin spatula (here’s the one I love for cakes) around the edges then transfer to a wire rack and remove parchment backing. Cool cakes to room temperature then slice layers equally in half with a serrated knife.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Made 6 of these, with my Sunday school girls (12 yr olds). They loved it! They each got to take their own home. We used this frosting (so good!)
Wow! That’s a lot of cake! Thank you for sharing that with me, Nelya!
Wow Natasha, i love your cakes. The pics alone speaks volumes. Especially the story roll cake
I’m so glad you enjoyed that, Margaret!
Amazing recipe! Thank you so much. Do you have anything to help with high altitudes; except a bit more flour or a bit less liquid?
Hi Wendy, It’s hard to say without being there to experiment. Normally for elevation adjustments, you would need to increase oven temperature, some recipes state to reduce sugar. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
For the roll cake , I reduce from 3/4 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup, it still comes out good. Thank you.
Hi Viet, I have tested that and it still works but the cake doesn’t always consistently rise as well.
Hi Natasha, thanks for such a great recipe! But I need your help, please. Is it okay if I had my desired amount of milk (buttermilk or whole milk), vanilla and butter or oil (I might even exempt it) to make a vanilla sponge cake recipe? Will it turn out just fine) Thanks a lot! I’m really looking forward to your reply, as I want to try it on Thursday!❤
Hi Chrissy, you would need to make other modifications and without testing, I can’t make that recommendation. Adding those things without additional leavening would deflate the cake.
Can you add vanilla to the sponge cake ?
Hi Marie, you can add 1 tsp of vanilla extract (or any), folding it in quickly before adding flour.
Natasha,
Can I use this recipe for a sheet cake? I am looking for a good sponge cake to top with crumbs for traditional New York style crumb cake.
Hi Ginny, I would suggest following the instructions from our sponge cake roll It’s not the ideal sheet cake cake as you do have to remove it to remove the parchment paper underneath or it would stick badly to the pan.
Hi Natasha!
This morning was my first time making a sponge cake. I am thoroughly please with the recipe.
Made the cake in 2 medium loaf pans as a test, adjusted the baking time, and they came out perfect. I’ve eaten 1/3 of one cake already. LOL!
Now I’m going to begin making a Strawberry sponge for a friend using my 9″ cake pans.
So happy to have found your recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for that awesome feedback, Lynn!
Hi Natasha. I stumbled across your amazing recipe this evening, and I’m excited to try it this weekend! I was just wondering if you could tell me what spatula you’re referring to in step #3—“Remove from pan by sliding a thin spatula (here’s the one I love for cakes)” It’s possible I’m not seeing a link for it. P.S. This is my first time on your website, and I loved everything so much, I ended up following you on IG just now. Thanks in advance for your help.
Hi Veronica, we used the spatula apart of this set here. I hope that helps.
Is the testing for a figure 8 part before and after the addition of the flour ?
Would I be able to make this a chocolate sponge cake ? What would you recommend ?
Hi Tanya, for a chocolate sponge cake, you basically substitute some of the flour with cocoa. So you could try 1/4 cup sifted cocoa and 3/4 cup flour and sift them together before folding them into the batter.
Thank you! I will defiantly try that!
Is it possible to make this a Matcha sponge cake?
Hi Laura, I haven’t tested that but I imagine that may work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
I used this recipe and the cake tested like omelettes
Hi Onomini, I would highly recommend reading the tips in the recipe above for what the batter should look like. Since the cake relies on the volume of the eggs for leavening, it is critical to beat the eggs and sugar adequately in this classic sponge cake, or it will be flat and dense.
Hi Natasha, any idea on measurement to half the recipe so that I can bake them in two six inch pans?
Hi Dammy, yes you would halve everything proportionally.
Love this recipe. Very versatile…I was wondering…I have a special cake pan…shaped like a wine bottle. Do you think I could try to pour the entire batter in and bake it? Obviously I would have tried already if I thought so…So, what do you think, any chance?
Hi Ann, I honestly have never tried it in a pan like that to advise. I think it would be really difficult to get it out of the pan.
The receipe is very easy, which is awesome! My 10 year daughter made it as I watched and it came out beautiful, but why is there the egg smell and a little eggy taste? Just wondering did she not do something she was suppose to?
Thanks!
Hi Felita, I’ve made this cake so many times that I have noticed it smells eggy only when I have a window open. I don’t know why it happens but it is similar to meringue where an outdoor draft can make that smell eggy as well. Was that the case with your cake? Do you remember if the windows were open when you had it out of the oven?
Hi,
No the windows weren’t open. It was eggy smelling when she took it out of the oven and a taste of eggs not overwhelming but still there. Was she suppose to add vanilla extract?
Thanks!
Felita
HI Felita, was it the same proportion of sugar and did the cake rise and have an airy consistency as shown in the photo?
Any way we can actually use less eggs for this?
Hi Ryan, you could only cut the eggs down if you cut the entire cake down proportionally since the cake relies on the eggs and sugar to rise as leavening.
Hi! I have to say, I am not the best baker out there and thought I’d give this recipe a try because who could mess up 4 ingredients right? Anddd as per usual, I managed to mess this one up! (Go figure). I have faith that this recipe is great, but I either have to master the technique or cooking time. Mistake #1 I followed the directions, but noticed that i had unblended flour when i went to pour the mix into the pan. The recipe mentioned do not over mix, but I am thinking I under mixed it there. Mistake #2 I think it is possible I took the cake out too soon? It looked golden brown when I took it out but then as it cooled it fell a little flat. The bottom of the cake was dense and had almost a clear color and eggy smell where as the top was slightly airy, but just not enough sponge at all. I poured the mix into one pan only (i am not sure the size but it looked like a 9-10 inch maybe? Any feedback is appreciated!
Hi Blaire, I’m more than happy to troubleshoot. This sponge cake should not be dense. I would highly recommend reading the tips in the recipe above for what the batter should look like. Since the cake relies on the volume of the eggs for leavening, it is critical to beat the eggs and sugar adequately in this classic sponge cake, or it will be flat and dense. I also recommend checking out our post on measuring here that happens to be the culprit often.
Hi, yes that I remember she put the correct amount t of sugar and it did come out the same dairy and it raised. I can not understand it wither…lol. I mean she did awesome! It really came out beautiful like yours! Maybe it was the sugar.
Thanks!
How can I make the genoise cake a marble genoise? Is that possible?
Hi Chris, I haven’t tried to marble this cake but I think it could work if you divided the batter and folded cocoa into 1 half of the batter then interchanged the batter as you add it to the baking pans.
Your instruction says not to grease the sides of the pans. However, in your Russian Tiramisu using this cake recipe, you greased the sides of the springform pan. I just made this cake to use for your tiramisu but used 2 9″ round pans because I am bad at slicing cakes into 2 layers. My cake sank in the middle slightly while cooling in the pan. Could it be because I did not grease the pan?
Hi Alicia, there are several factore that play in to that but that could be one of them, although some of our readers have greased the sides with great results. I am always happy to help troubleshoot. The #1 reason for not rising uniformly is if the eggs and sugar are underbeaten. If you are using an electric hand mixer, add a few minutes to the mixing time on high speed. Also, did you possibly open the oven door while the cakes were baking – that could cause it to fall, or if the cakes are removed from the oven too early. I hope that helps!
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I didn’t do any of that. I have made this cake several times including the mango cake which turned out perfectly. I followed the sponge recipe with the mango cake because it was perfect (it also has baking powder) but weighed the ingredients this time, i.e., the flour and sugar. This is the first time I weighed these ingredients. I googled 1 cup flour, sifted and it gave me 100 g. However, your recipe showed 130 g. I followed yours. Why the discrepancy? Will I be better off just measuring? Could that be why?
Hi Alicia, I think it may be due to your weighing flour after sifting where this recipe measures flour before sifting.
I’m not going to lie, the first time I tried this recipe my cake was flat, burnt at the top, and extremely dense at the bottom.
It wasn’t until I turned my oven down to 345 F and put a tin foil over it that it allowed the cake to be baked through without browning at the top too soon.
Needless to say, the second time was a huge success and I would definitely make this recipe again!
I’m so glad to hear it was a huge success!
Hi again Natasha!
This is a follow-up to my cake-making trial-by-fire–(Lol…Just kidding…nothing caught on fire!)
Hey–success! I turned on my hand mixer and beat and beat and beat…it got twice as foamy as yesterday….
I found that the figure-8 didn’t work for me–there wasn’t enough batter dripping off the beaters to form one. What I did was swirl the beaters (turned off of course!) on top of the batter and watched to see how big and long-lasting the ripples formed would be. I did this several times to ensure that they didn’t sink quickly–then stopped beating.
Also, I found that the low-rise (lol) cake of yesterday tasted nice but was a little dry. This time I cut the bake time to 20 minutes. The two layers seem fine–were up to the rim and are cooling now and are nice and springy to the touch! Yay!
I think I’m gonna just sprinkle confectioner’s sugar on the layers and eat it by hand…very informal…but, oh, what a treat! Genoise!! (Hope I spelled that right!)
Thanks again! Can’t wait to challenge myself again and will come here for one of YOUR recipes and videos! Trish
That’s so great!! & you’re welcome!!
Hi,
One doubt. Perfect sponge cake and its already been five to six times I have baked it. One query though, can we grease the cake pan, I have run out of parchment paper today and feel like baking the sponge.
Thanks a ton for wonderful recipes
I’m so glad it has been a big success for you! It will be very difficult to remove the cake from the pan if no parchment is used since there is no butter or oil in the actual cake – greasing the pan won’t help much to get it to release. It can adversely affect the rise though by greasing the pan – the batter may pull away from the sides and not rise as evenly. That has been my experience.
HI Natasha! I love your site here and the video! And your personality just SHINES! I’m so happy I stumbled upon you!!
OK- I made the cake just now. I only have a hand mixer. The batter was nice and fluffy but sadly the layers didn’t rise much. It looks like a very tasty cake though! My question is–and this may sound silly–but just when do you do that figure-8 trick? Do you do it to the egg/sugar mixture or to the final batter after you’ve folded in the flour etc.? I have a feeling you’re gonna say do it to the figure-8 mixture…I didn’t do that unfortunately. I think I needed to beat more….(sad face). I just want confirmation about the little figure-8 tip and when to employ it….
That being said, those layers sure look yummy!! Have to do the recipe again to get thing 100% great!
Hi Trish, if using an electric hand mixer, it would require longer beating since a stand mixer is much more effective in whipping the eggs and sugar which is critical since this cake relies on the volume of eggs and sugar to rise. The figure 8 that the reader described is after the eggs and sugar are beaten and before adding the flour. You want to ensure that the eggs and sugar are adequately beaten before adding flour. I hope that helps to troubleshoot and I’m so happy you love our videos. Thank you for that thoughtful feedback!
Hi Natasha— Thanks so much for your prompt and very nice reply! I haven’t dived into my Version 1.2 of the cake but am mustering the courage as I write. Will give it another go! The eggs are at room temp and have been warned by me to get nice and fluffy! Thanks again!
Best of luck, Trish! I hope you love it even more!
Ahhhhmazing!!! I’m so happy I found your site! I have never been a baker by any means and now I’m cranking out sponge cake, cheesecake, almond cake! And what is best is that my 2 year old daughter gets so excited to help me make new recipes!
So because my arm was falling off, with beating the egg/sugar mixture, I cheated and threw in some cream of tartare and it came out beautifully!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Tammy!
Hi Natasha, can I remove the lemon from the simple syrup? I’m afraid the cake will have a hint of lemon taste.
Also, can I slice one into two and put whipped cream in the middle? Will it hold?
I’m choosing bet this and another recipe that requires separate beating of egg whites & yolks + oil + butter. It sounds complicated 😂
Hi Janet, absolutely, it will work to remove the lemon juice. We used to beat the yolks and whites separately and found it wasn’t necessary as long as you beat them adequately together. When you pull up on the whisk, the batter should fall in a thick ribbon and stay on the surface for a couple of seconds. That’s how you know it’s beaten adequately. It will hold whipped cream in the middle.
I just wanted to say WOW !!!
It’s finally the first sponge cake that actually is fail proof!
I’ve made 2 yesterday, small oven.
The first one my son beat the egg whites quite a bit before adding sugar and the yolks.
The second one I’ve beat it but not as long probably.
So the first one is really amazing, but the second one is very nice too.
I’ve made a Paw Patrol cake.
Vanilla sponge, orange curaçao syrup, cream cheese/butter/whip coconuts cream filled with blueberry and raspberry!
I’m so proud of myself that I finally mastered the sponge cake!!
Thank you a lot Natasha!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it & that it finally worked out for you!